Monday, November 5, 2012

Happy Belated Halloween everyone! Since its that time of year again,
we’re gonna look at something in tune with the season. This is the Top 8
Scariest Moments in Gaming!

Honorable Mention: The Pack from Dead Space 2

Is there anything scarier than a demonic little monster kid
who’s trying to kill you? The answer to that is no. The only reason these
little bastards are only an honorable mention is because I only played the demo
for this game. But holy crap, are they scary. I mean, the regular necromorphs
are freaky and whatnot, but you throw a little kid version in there, and that
ups the nightmare-fuel by about a thousand. Add to the fact they come in rather
large groups, and you have a whole roomful of these things ready to tear you
limb from limb.

Honorable Mention 2- Old Tien’s Landing- Jade Empire

Old Tien’s Landing is a town that was flooded by the
building of a dam. And the people in charge graciously declined to tell the
people living there that they were going to get flooded out. As a result, when
the floodgates closed, nobody was prepared and a lot of people drowned. Add to
that fact the dead are unable to rest, and you have a nice little setup for
creepiness. Now it isn’t so much that the ghosts do anything. They don’t attack
you, they don’t talk to you (with only two exceptions), they just float around
in the air above you. And there’s just something eerie and weird about it.
There’s some ghostly ambience, but it’s not everywhere or all that loud, so
they’re more or less just drift about silently.

8. Baal’s reveal from Diablo II

It may be twelve years since its release, and maybe
technology has improved since then, but I still love the between-act cinematics
for Diablo II. In them, this guy named Marius is relating to the Archangel
Tyrael, his story in how he got caught up with the Dark Wanderer (Diablo in
disguise) and the events that transpired. For the epilogue cinematic of act 4,
which is the end of the game, it is revealed that Marius isn’t talking to
Tyrael at all, but Baal, one of the Prime Evils. This of course leads into the
expansion, or act 5. Just that one flash of the light when you realize “oh
shit, this was Baal all along”, and what follows, really sets up the idea that
this shit just got real. It’s a really nice cliffhanger sort of end to the
original game and a great setup to the Lord of Destruction expansion.

7. Scarecrow hallucinations- Batman: Arkham Asylum

What’s more fun than
running around the outside of a square area trying to get from one end to the
other? How about doing so with a giant, needle-fingered Scarecrow that’s trying
to kill you? And this one is not nearly as charming as Cilian Murphy. And it
just happens, you get thrown into a nightmare, such as the death of your parents, the ‘death’ of Commissioner Gordon, and replaying the first scene of the game with Batman and Joker’s places switched. Dr. Jonathan Crane is a
master of fear, and this game makes sure you don’t forget that.

6. The Dead Hand- the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

This game has a lot of weird, odd, and even downright
cartoony villains. But creepy, that title goes to the Dead Hand. This thing
looks like it crawled out of a Resident Evil game; long clawed tentacle arms
around the room that grab you, a mutated, deformed looking body that looks like
its covered in blood, the arms on the body ending in spikes. Even the way it
moves, when on the surface, is creepy. Oh yes, the damn thing moves
underground. You only encounter this creature twice in the game, but that’s
more than enough to get freaked out by this survival-horror escapee.

5. Children’s Library- Ghostbusters (2009)

This part is both creepy and sad. In the library level, you
go into the children’s reading room. In there you can hear ghost children
talking, there’s some poltergeist action, and handprints appear on the wall. When
you leave the room, one of the voices says “Bye”. That, in combination with the
fact its dark , just cements that this is the eeriest, and saddest, room you’ll
encounter.

4. Ravenholm- Half Life 2

This is a double-speed Yakety Sax run. You've been warned.

Ah, Ravenholm. A nice little town. Well-lit,
safe, with friendly locals just waiting to greet you, and a lovely ambience. So
pack up the car, bring the kids, and come on down to Ravenholm, a great place
for the whole family. Okay, back to serious. This place has creepy written all
over it. This is the poster-child for fucking creepy.

3. “Welcome” to Rapture- Bioshock.

After a very cool cinematic in which your bathysphere shows
you the sights and majesty of Rapture, you find yourself docked in a very dark
room (at 5:25 in this video). With this lovely lady,
who after eviscerating some nameless son of a bitch, proceeds to try and give
you her own personal welcome to the city. It’s then you realize, maybe
this isn’t going to be as pleasant as I’d hoped. And then the game actually
starts and you realize you’ve jumped from the plane crash into the underwater
city full of drugged-up psychos. Good times.

2. Hespith’s
Chant- Dragon Age: Origins

I
don’t know what’s more terrifying about this entry; the thing itself, or the
implications of it. In the Deep Roads (one of my favorite parts of the game), you encounter Hespith, who is apparently the last survivor of the party led by the Paragon Branka (whom you are looking for). After reciting her rhyme to you while unseen, you'll later find her and talk to her in person. She tells you about what the darkspawn do to female prisoners. Not long after, you encounter the broodmother, formerly a dwarven woman named Laryn. In my first playthrough of the game, I did so as a Dwarf Noble (also my favorite origin). When I got to this part, I came to the realization of "holy shit, that could have been me! If not for the Wardens, that would be my character!" So not only was Hespith herself creepy, and the broodmothers and their creation unsettling, but the realization that this was almost the fate of my own character, puts this at number 2.

1. David Archer: Project Overlord- Mass Effect 2

Skip to 5:26 to see what I mean

Maybe it's my fault for playing this late at night. But I tell you, when that computer static started shrieking at me, and then the giant pixel face, I nearly shit myself. And it happens several times. And then shit like this(at 13:52) goes down and you're thinking WTF is going on here? Once you do find out what's going on, it's no less horrifying, except now the reasons are different. This ending gives you one of BroShep's best performances as well, so that's gotta say something right there*. Not matter how you end this, even Paragon like me, you can't help but feel sad and horrified by the whole thing. And you realize that if in a Bioware game, never trust a character voiced by Simon Templemann. It's pretty intense. But as far as creepy goes, those damn jump scares really did it.

*Despite my being an exclusive player of FemShep.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed the list, despite being rather late for Halloween. Until next time all!